Head-Scratcher: Where Loki Season 2 Sits On the MCU Timeline?
There are three possible answers to that question.
Summary
- The Disney Loki is confusing when we try to fit it into the MCU timeline.
- There are three possible theories about when the events of the show take place.
- The protagonist is the 2012 Loki variant, which leads some viewers to place the events of the show in that year.
- Some argue that the show takes place in the present of the Sacred Timeline, which is 2025.
- The most plausible but unsettling theory is that the TVA and Loki exist outside of time, so it can't be placed on the MCU timeline.
As Loki Season 2 draws to a close, we are about to find out if the God of Mischief will be able to save the TVA and repair the Temporal Loom, freeing the branching realities in the process. This promises to be an explosive season finale filled with suspense, action, and mind-bending twists.
But to be honest, for many viewers, the whole concept of the Time Keepers and the Time Variance Authority (TVA) in Loki is mind-bending.
If you are still wondering where the events of Loki fit into the MCU timeline and how they relate to the multiverse used extensively in Phases Four and Five, we are here to explain. Or at least try to.
Loki Season 2 Timeline
Looking at the events from TVA headquarters, the Season 2 timeline is a no-brainer. New episodes pick up right after the Season 1 finale without any time jumps.
But that is not helpful when we think about the continuous MCU timeline. When exactly does Loki take place from the point of view of the superheroes of the Sacred Timeline?
Well, this question has three possible theories, each of which has its justifications.
Theory 1: 2012
The events of Loki begin when he snitches the Tesseract during the storyline in Endgame, when the Avengers go back to 2012 to get the Infinity Stone.
When Loki disappears with the Space Stone, he creates a branching reality that must be pruned according to the TVA rules, and Loki is taken to headquarters to be judged for creating the Nexus event.
So the Loki we see in the series is actually the 2012 version, who hasn't gone through most of the character development shown in the franchise. The events that take place in Loki Seasons 1 and 2 can't last more than a few months, so some viewers argue that the series is set in 2012.
Theory 2: 2025
The TVA exists outside of time. So the second theory is that when Loki finds himself in the TVA headquarters, he is automatically placed in the present of the Sacred Timeline, which is currently 2025, the year the events of Quantumania, Secret Invasion, and other Phase Five projects take place.
A drawer full of Infinity Stones and the agents' knowledge of Loki's and Thanos' fates support this theory.
Theory 3: Out of Time
Probably the most accurate, but also the most unsettling theory, is that we can't place Loki in the MCU timeline. As mentioned above, the TVA exists outside the Sacred Timeline, and that means it is everywhere and always.
The Time Keepers can travel to the future, the past, and different universes, which makes them ubiquitous. He Who Remains said in his lecture that he is from the 31st century and that is a distant past for him.
One could argue that Sylvie created the multiverse by killing He Who Remains, which means that event took place in the past of the MCU timeline. But in reality, the multiverse has always existed. Sylvie just set it free. So we can't calculate the Loki timeline from that event.
Probably there will be more arguments for one of these theories when the Loki Season 2 finale airs on Disney+ on Thursday, November 9th.